Sydney Archdiocese worth over a billion dollars

The Chancellor of the Sydney Archdiocese of the Catholic Church has told the Royal Commission into the institutional response to child abuse that the Archdiocese controls 1.2 billion dollars and turns a multi-million dollar profit every year.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard that the Catholic Church in Sydney is worth more than $1.2 billion. The Commission also learned that the Church spent more than $1 million fighting a man molested as a child by his local priest. It was a decision that was today described by a senior Church official as a case of defending the institution before the victim.

Lucy Carter reports.

LUCY CARTER, REPORTER: Reverend Monsignor John Joseph Usher has been trying to mend the Church's ways since he took over as chancellor of the Sydney archdiocese.

JOHN JOSEPH USHER: We're very clear about the fact that the victim is the one we should be most concerned about.

LUCY CARTER: He streamlined the way victims' access pastoral and financial help and won back the trust of abuse survivor John Ellis.

JOHN JOSEPH USHER: The victim is the prime responsibility of the Church, not the good name of the Church and certainly not the perpetrator.

LUCY CARTER: Monsignor Usher's new approach is a stark contrast to what the Church has done in the past. A former altar boy, Mr Ellis was abused by his local priest, then he endured years of aggressive litigation when he tried to sue the Church. A legal technicality saw his claim thrown out and for three years he was threatened with paying the Church's legal costs.

JOHN JOSEPH USHER: People will try to defend the institution before they give care to a victim. I don't know why, I can't tell you why that happens, I just see it happen.

LUCY CARTER: For the first time the Royal Commission has been told about the Church's net worth.

The hearing's heard that through assets and a complicated series of funds, the archdiocese of Sydney controls over $1.2 billion and turns a multimillion dollar profit every year.

JUSTICE PETER MCCLELLAN, ROYAL COMMISSION CHAIR: Am I right in thinking that the funds we've been talking about today of the Church are not amenable to income tax?